18(a) Describe the mission/purpose of your proposed gTLD

The mission of the proposed “.amsterdamʺ TLD is to provide the community, stakeholders of and visitors to the City of Amsterdam with a TLD that will be the new address of the ʺdigital cityʺ, reflecting their bond with the City and its values. The TLD will provide a virtual space in which digital communication and connections are stimulated and business can increasingly flourish: interest groups, institutions, communities, individuals and corporations are stimulated to adopt the new TLD as a valuable tool for business, communication or expression, but also as a means to express their connection to the City in the broadest sense of the word. The international brand awareness and recognizability and uniform spelling of the name of the City will contribute significantly to the adoption and use of this TLD.

The new ʺ.amsterdamʺ TLD aims to provide the stakeholders of the City of Amsterdam with an address that is both recognizable as having a link to the City, while being ‘personal’ as well. Being used as a part of Amsterdamʹs branding strategy, a geographic TLD like .amsterdam is expected to create and support the local identity for enterprises, institutions, and individuals and with the aim to result in a stronger sense of community. It is planned that Amsterdam’s marketing strategy and the creation of a maximum branding value will be substantially supported by communication activities on domain names such as http:⁄⁄visit.amsterdam, to name but one example. The introduction and the ‘maintenance’ of the branding of the TLD will be supported by the City’s Marketing department, which has invested significantly in the branding of the City over the past eight years. The Registry will be offering tools for the marketing of domain names in the “.amsterdam” TLD realm to third parties with the aim of maximizing a rapid recognizability of the TLD.

By actively using the City’s own domain names as described above, but also highly stimulating (through marketing and agreements) the actual usage of the TLD, the Registry firmly believes the TLD will grow to be of high value to its registrants by means of actual public usage and search engine ranking.

The marketing strategy of the City of Amsterdam will be in line with the “I amsterdam” City Marketing strategy that already has a high recognizability in the City as it has been running for close to eight years now. Furthermore, the City aims to use the TLD for its services to the public. To that purpose a number of domain names will remain reserved for the exclusive use by the City of Amsterdam. Next to that a number of domain names will be reserved and issued in batches to parties with a specific interest in the entire batch of domain names in conjunction with the obligation for the registrant to actively use these domains in line with such specific interest. Thus, the Registry can –for a fairly limited but important range of domain names- guarantee valuable experiences for the public.

Examples of these ‘batches’ mentioned above would be “wonen.amsterdam”,“woningen.amsterdam”,“koopwoningen.amsterdam” and “huurwoningen.amsterdam”. By offering these four domain names for sale as a ‘batch’, with the conditions of active use within a short period after purchase (to be determined) we can achieve rapid public availability of these strategic domain names. On top of that, by auctioning these batches, we create a level playing field allowing all interested parties to acquire those names (with the conditions mentioned being a part of the sale), while at the same time offering the new owner the strategic advantage of having acquired a coherent set of domain names, which can be considered to be of premium strategic value. The Registry also believes that this mechanism will prevent domain name squatting for these important domain names. Domain name squatting could otherwise have a very negative effect on the actual use of and the sentiments surrounding the new TLD.

The Registry anticipates that“.amsterdam” will add to the current space more differentiation in the way that it provides registrants the opportunity to have a distinct new possibility to show⁄promote their brand, shop or business, identity or community via a TLD that is “not distant” in many ways. In terms of competition the Registry will provide a TLD that will add more consumer choice in a market dominated by the national “.nl” TLD. In terms of innovation the City of Amsterdam has traditionally been a national leader in providing IT Services to its citizens and will make all efforts so that the new TLD will reflect that ongoing innovation.

REGISTRY’S VISIONThe Registryʹs vision is that as the internet has reached global coverage, the internet will enter the ‘capillary system’ of society, with a strong focus on local relevance. The TLD we apply for reflects that local relevance and should become the City’s platform for business and communication for all of its stakeholders. The Registryʹs mission is to know the local (digital) needs and how the new TLD can facilitate both the commercial, functional and emotional aspects of bringing the new TLD to the City and its stakeholders

The Registryʹs strategy is to collaborate with acknowledged leaders in Internet technologies and service providers to expand Internet capacity in an orderly manner through new charter TLDs.

MarketThere are already nearly 5 million “.nl” domain names, and the Netherlands has the highest domain density (number of domains per capita) in the world with currently 0.39 domains per capita and has one of the most extensive internet infrastructures in the world. “.amsterdam” ,being the TLD for the capital city of the Netherlands clearly expects to profit from the extremely high interest in registering and using domains and in the internet as a whole.

StatisticsThe City of Amsterdam has registered:-780.152 inhabitants-72.000 enterprises-18.000 enterprises with Amsterdam in their name-400.000.nl domain names registered to addresses in the Amsterdam Region-20.000 .nl domain names with Amsterdam in their name-14.000 .nl domain names ending with “amsterdam”-350 hotels-150 neighborhoods-5.000 streets-7.000 shops-100’s of foundations and associationsThese numbers reflect a clear indication of the quantitative potential for domain name registrations and use of the TLD at the same time. We are confident there’s far greater potential than the numbers in our business plans – addresses can become domain names (like http:⁄⁄rokin14.amsterdam), which has the potential to multiply the number of domain names sold in the business plan by an order of magnitude.

The Registry has in total a wide target audience. At the end of the first year the Registry estimates a potential of 7.000 domain names. By organizing a sunrise, landrush and open registration that will follow, all efforts are made to maximize the amount of domain names being bought and used at the moment of the launch. During sunrise trade names and trademark holders can be the first to claim their domain name. This will generate a positive sentiment, by guaranteeing that rightful prospective owners will not need to take reactive and costly actions, but are guaranteed the ownership of a domain name in a well established, well branded and positively acknowledged TLD, tied to one of the best known cities in the world.

During landrush the Registry will start selling specific generic domain names that are likely to encounter a higher than average level of interest for purchase. This in order to prevent the domain names to fall into the hands of domain name squatters, limiting the actual use of these important domain names.

After that, the remaining domain names will be issued on a first come first serve basis.

The Registry projects that the number for registrations in the new .Amsterdam TLD would reach at the start 3.500 in 2013, climbing to 7.000 at the start of 2014 and 14.000 at the start of 2015

ABOUT DONUTSDonuts Inc. is the parent applicant for this and multiple other TLDs. The company intends to increase competition and consumer choice at the top level. It will operate these carefully selected TLDs safely and securely in a shared resources business model. To achieve its objectives, Donuts has recruited seasoned executive management with proven track records of excellence in the industry. In addition to this business and operational experience, the Donuts team also has contributed broadly to industry policymaking and regulation, successfully launched TLDs, built industry-leading companies from the ground up, and brought innovation, value and choice to the domain name marketplace.

DONUTS’ PLACE WITHIN ICANN’S MISSIONICANN and the new TLD program share the following purposes: 1. to make sure that the Internet remains as safe, stable and secure as possible, while 2. helping to ensure there is a vibrant competitive marketplace to efficiently bring the benefits of the namespace to registrants and users alike.

ICANN harnesses the power of private enterprise to bring forth these public benefits. While pursuing its interests, Donuts helps ICANN accomplish its objectives by:

1. Significantly widening competition and choice in Internet identities with hundreds of new top-level domain choices; 2. Providing innovative, robust, and easy-to-use new services, names and tools for users, registrants, registrars, and registries while at the same time safeguarding the rights of others;3. Designing, launching, and securely operating carefully selected TLDs in multiple languages and character sets; and4. Providing a financially robust corporate umbrella under which its new TLDs will be protected and can thrive.

ABOUT DONUTS’ RESOURCESDonuts’ financial resources are extensive. The company has raised more than US$100 million from a number of capital sources including multiple multi-billion dollar venture capital and private equity funds, a top-tier bank, and other well-capitalized investors. Should circumstances warrant, Donuts is prepared to raise additional funding from current or new investors. Donuts also has in place pre-funded, Continued Operations Instruments to protect future registrants. These resource commitments mean Donuts has the capability and intent to launch, expand and operate its TLDs in a secure manner, and to properly protect Internet users and rights-holders from potential abuse.

1. Providing the operational and financial stability necessary for TLDs of all sizes, but particularly for those with smaller volume (which are more likely to succeed within a shared resources and shared services model);2. Competing more powerfully against incumbent gTLDs; and3. More thoroughly and uniformly executing consumer and rights holder protections.

THIS TLDThis TLD is attractive and useful to end-users as it better facilitates search, self-expression, information sharing and the provision of legitimate goods and services. Along with the other TLDs in the Donuts family, this TLD will provide Internet users with opportunities for online identities and expression that do not currently exist. In doing so, the TLD will introduce significant consumer choice and competition to the Internet namespace – the very purpose of ICANN’s new TLD program.

This TLD is a generic term and its second level names will be attractive to a variety of Internet users. Making this TLD available to a broad audience of registrants is consistent with the competition goals of the New TLD expansion program, and consistent with ICANN’s objective of maximizing Internet participation. Donuts believes in an open Internet and, accordingly, we will encourage inclusiveness in the registration policies for this TLD. In order to avoid harm to legitimate registrants, Donuts will not artificially deny access, on the basis of identity alone (without legal cause), to a TLD that represents a generic form of activity and expression.

DONUTS’ APPROACH TO PROTECTIONSNo entity, or group of entities, has exclusive rights to own or register second level names in this TLD. There are superior ways to minimize the potential abuse of second level names, and in this application Donuts will describe and commit to an extensive array of protections against abuse, including protections against the abuse of trademark rights.

We recognize some applicants seek to address harms by constraining access to the registration of second level names. However, we believe attempts to limit abuse by limiting registrant eligibility is unnecessarily restrictive and harms users by denying access to many legitimate registrants. Restrictions on second level domain eligibility would prevent law-abiding individuals and organizations from participating in a space to which they are legitimately connected, and would inhibit the sort of positive innovation we intend to see in this TLD. As detailed throughout this application, we have struck the correct balance between consumer and business safety, and open access to second level names.

By applying our array of protection mechanisms, Donuts will make this TLD a place for Internet users that is far safer than existing TLDs. Donuts will strive to operate this TLD with fewer incidences of fraud and abuse than occur in incumbent TLDs. In addition, Donuts commits to work toward a downward trend in such incidents.

OUR PROTECTIONSDonuts has consulted with and evaluated the ideas of international law enforcement, consumer privacy advocacy organizations, intellectual property interests and other Internet industry groups to create a set of protections that far exceed those in existing TLDs, and bring to the Internet namespace nearly two dozen new rights and protection mechanisms to raise user safety and protection to a new level.

These include eight, innovative and forceful mechanisms and resources that far exceed the already powerful protections in the applicant guidebook. These are:

1. Periodic audit of WhoIs data for accuracy;2. Remediation of inaccurate Whois data, including takedown, if warranted;3. A new Domain Protected Marks List (DPML) product for trademark protection; 4. A new Claims Plus product for trademark protection;5. Terms of use that prohibit illegal or abusive activity;6. Limitations on domain proxy and privacy service;7. Published policies and procedures that define abusive activity; and 8. Proper resourcing for all of the functions above.

They also include fourteen new measures that were developed specifically by ICANN for the new TLD process. These are:

DONUTS’ INTENTION FOR THIS TLDAs a senior government authority has recently said, “a successful applicant is entrusted with operating a critical piece of global Internet infrastructure.” Donuts’ plan and intent is for this TLD to serve the international community by bringing new users online through opportunities for economic growth, increased productivity, the exchange of ideas and information and greater self-expression.